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Prapancha

aka Family Life 1961 138’(97’) b&w Marathi d Madhukar Pathak pc Indian National Pics s/lyr G.D. Madgulkar c K.B. Kamat, Ghanekar m Sudhir Phadke lp Sulochana, Amar Sheikh, Kusum Deshpande, Jayant Dharmadhikari, Seema, Shrikant Moghe, Shankar Ghanekar

A miserabilist story about a poor Marathi village potter who tries to feed his wife (Sulochana) and six children in the hope that things will improve when younger brother Shankar completes his education. But they don’t and, to foil Shankar’s plans to start a porcelain factory, the local moneylender starts legal proceedings to claim the family house. The potter dies, causing the younger brother’s marriage to his beloved Champa (Seema) to be cancelled. Eventually the potter’s widow migrates with her children to the big city, so as not to be a burden. Shot mostly on location, it was screened in the USSR and in the West in two versions, one subtitled, the other with a voice over.

Film